Thursday morning news - August 26, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Blinken estimates 1,500 Americans may still await evacuation » Secretary of State Tony Blinken said Wednesday that as many as 1,500 Americans may be waiting to be evacuated from Afghanistan. That figure suggests that this part of the U.S.-led airlift might be completed before President Biden’s Tuesday deadline.

But Blinken said everyone remaining in Kabul is in danger.

BLINKEN: We are operating in a hostile environment in a city and country now controlled by the Taliban with the very real possibility of an ISIS-K attack.

The U.S. government has contacted about 500 Americans with instructions on when and how to get to the chaotic Kabul airport to catch evacuation flights.

Blinken said the State Department estimates there were about 6,000 Americans who wanted to leave Afghanistan when the airlift began Aug. 14, and that about 4,500 of them have been evacuated so far.

At a Pentagon news conference Wednesday, spokesman John Kirby said U.S. helicopters conducted an operation Tuesday night to whisk people trapped in the city into the airport.

KIRBY: It was inside Kabul, David.
REPORTER: Was that a helicopter operation?
KIRBY: It was
REPORTER: Can you tell us how many?
KIRBY: We’re not going to provide specific details, less than 20.

But untold thousands of at-risk Afghans are struggling to get into the airport.

Some of the refugees from Afghanistan that have made it onto planes have arrived at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. And up to 10,000 more could arrive there in the coming weeks.

Two U.S. lawmakers' Kabul trip prompts questions, condemnation » House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy don’t agree on very much. But they were unified Wednesday in calling on members of Congress not to travel to Afghanistan.

That after two House members, one Republican and one Democrat flew into the Kabul airport to get a firsthand look at the evacuation.

McCarthy told reporters...

MCCARTHY: I don’t think it’s smart for others to go. You’re putting yourself—not yourself in harm's way, but you’re Americans in harm’s way if the military has to protect you.

And Speaker Pelosi agreed.

PELOSI: This is deadly serious. We do not want members to go.

The Pentagon is also discouraging VIP visits.

Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton, a Democrat, and GOP Congressman Peter Meijer of Michigan flew in on a charter Tuesday. They were on the ground at the Kabul airport for several hours before flying out on a military plane.

They said their visit was an effort to conduct congressional oversight of the evacuation.

Pentagon: US troops must get their COVID-19 vaccines ASAP » Military troops must immediately begin to get vaccinated against COVID-19. That’s the word from the Secretary of Defense. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Wednesday ordered service leaders to “impose ambitious timelines for implementation.”

More than 800,000 service members have yet to get their shots, according to Pentagon data. And now that the Pfizer vaccine has received full approval from the FDA, the Defense Department is adding it to the list of required shots for military service.

The Austin memo does not dictate a specific timeline for completing the vaccinations. But it says the military services will have to report regularly on their progress. And a senior defense official said that Austin has made it clear to the services that he expects them to move quickly, and that this will be completed in weeks not months.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

New NY governor adds 12,000 deaths to publicized COVID tally » New York’s newly seated Governor, Kathy Hochul, said 12,000 more people died from COVID-19 in her state than her predecessor admitted.

Gov. Hochul told NPR:

HOCHUL: The public deserves a clear, honest picture of what’s happening. And that’s whether it’s good or bad, they need to know the truth. And that’s how we restore confidence.

In its first daily update on the outbreak, Hochul's office reported that more than 55,000 people have died of the coronavirus in New York. That’s based on death certificate data submitted to the CDC.

That number is up from just over 43,000 deaths that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported to the public as of Monday, his last day in office.

Experts on WHO team say search for COVID origins has stalled » A team of investigators with the World Health Organization says its search for the origins of COVID-19 has stalled. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Investigators say the window of opportunity for solving the mystery as to where the virus came from is “closing fast.”

The WHO-recruited experts said the origins investigation is at “a critical juncture.” They add that they need urgent collaboration but instead the probe has come to a standstill. That is largely due to China’s refusal to cooperate.

Earlier this year, the team traveled to Wuhan, China—the original epicenter. In their analysis, published in March, members concluded the virus probably jumped to humans from animals, and they described the possibility of a laboratory leak as “extremely unlikely.”

The WHO later backtracked, conceding they prematurely closed the door on the lab leak theory.

Meanwhile, a U.S. intelligence review ordered up by President Biden proved inconclusive about the virus's origin.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

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